The best gig Wunderhorse have ever been to: “They tore the fucking roof off”
The Cornish rock band Wunderhorse have been making a dent in British Indie rock for the past six years. Still, the reserved quartet have been concealed in revealing their musical influences.
While their cinematic explorations of alternative rock have invited comparisons with Nirvana and Neil Young, it raises the question of where Wunderhorse really get their inspiration.
The answer was provided on a platter at an interview with Fred Perry, wherein if awe could be condensed into a single experience, Jacob Slater’s would be when he saw the Meat Puppets. The band’s founder saw them once “play in some crappy venue in London a few years ago, and they tore the fucking roof off. Just a few old hairy dudes having the best time ever playing music”.
Both bands are quite compatible in their alt-rock spirit, with Wunderhorse following in the Arizona rock group’s footsteps by emulating their top-tier melodic hooks and coarse underground riffs. The ‘Lake of Fire’ crew stayed true to their foundational psychedelic sound, and although the Newquay boys are a more modern take on indie-rock, the fun they have on stage is evocative of the Puppets and the engaging experience it is to see them live.
“They hadn’t lost any of the youthful energy of kids playing in a garage, and they certainly weren’t worried about looking cool or anything like that,” Slater said in 2021, adding, “It reminded me why I got into playing music in the first place. Thank you, Meat Puppets. The version of ‘Oh, Me’ that they played that night made me feel like a big happy jellyfish.”
The ‘old dudes’ were a reminder that a gig should always bring some fun, and that “it should make you smile sometimes”.
The surfers that make up Wunderhorse illustrated how surf rock can be soft but also loud, and that’s got to be a takeaway from Cris Kirkwood’s nonchalant excitability and his brother Curt’s miraculously cool, booming delivery. The Meat Puppets are a little too country for the Britpop boys, but their emotive vocals and raw performances are quite akin to one another.
“I’ve never really been influenced by subcultures,” Slater went on, “I know that probably sounds like I’m trying to be edgy, but honestly, I think I’ve always been more drawn to individual people rather than movements.”
It indeed is quite a task to find a box to put these boys in, as no genre really seems to fit. Their unpolished charm, chaotic lyrics of self-discovery, distorted guitars and powerful instrumentation could be a modern take on Americana as much as it could be classic rock, so slotting them under the Meat Puppets school makes sense.
Their blend of punk with tender nostalgia made them known for being genre-bending and keeping an audience on their toes, much like their younger counterparts in Wunderhorse. Their immersive, extended jams really string a crowd into the play, extending their hits to get people dancing and energised, such that it’s easy enough to get your mind blown by the four-decade strong band, but they won’t break your heart: that’s a job for Slater’s vocals.
